Overview

Chemistry has revolutionized modern society through synthesizing new materials and probing the fundamental processes of life. RIT offers chemistry and biochemistry undergraduate degree programs that prepare you for professional work in both research laboratory and industrial settings. We encourage collaboration with physicists, biologists, imaging scientists, geologists, and other scientists in team settings.

Certified by the American Chemical Society, RIT's undergraduate programs in chemistry and biochemistry meet a wide variety of quality standards in their curriculum, teaching, research, and intellectual climate. This certification ensures a rigorous program and strong career preparation.

10

New or renovated labs for teaching research

27.6K

Square feet of teaching, research laboratories, and support facilities

Latest News

RIT Associate Professor Suzanne O’Handley has been selected by the Council on Undergraduate Research and the Goldwater Scholarship Foundation as the 2019 CUR-Goldwater Scholars Faculty Mentor Awardee. O’Handley, a faculty member in RIT’s School of Chemistry and Materials Science, was chosen from 10 finalists for her considerable achievements as a dynamic scholar, teacher and mentor.

A team of researchers led by RIT Professor Casey Miller discovered that traditional admissions metrics for physics Ph.D. programs such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) do not predict completion and hurt the growth of diversity in physics.

RIT professor Casey Miller won $880,000 from the National Science Foundation INCLUDES program, which seeks to increase and strengthen efforts to create a diverse STEM workforce to meet the nation’s future needs and maintain its standing in research and development.

Featured Work

Identifying Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals

Taylor Wolf ’18 (biochemistry) ’18

Taylor Wolf ’18 (biochemistry) conducted research with Professor Scott Williams to create a test that will identify substandard and counterfeit pharmaceuticals that could help reduce what has been a...

Faculty

Staff

Undergraduate Programs

RIT’s chemistry and biochemistry programs feature rigorous, in-depth curricula that remain flexible enough to allow students to specialize in several other related fields. We offer robust undergraduate research and laboratory teaching experience opportunities, often as early as freshman year, with faculty mentorship and state-of-the-art facilities and instrumentation.

Search for and use new knowledge about chemicals to discover, develop, or improve synthetic fibers, paints, adhesives, drugs, cosmetics, electronic components, lubricants, and thousands of other products.

Graduate Programs

Our chemistry and materials science and engineering graduate programs prepare professional scientists by offering curricula that allow students to specialize in their chosen fields while engaging in rigorous, meaningful research using state-of-the-art instrumentation and facilities, under the guidance of a faculty mentor.

Minors and Immersions

Chemistry is intrinsically a part of our society from the fuels we use, the air we breathe, and the water we drink to the complex chemical behaviors of our own bodies. Chemistry is involved in the development of myriad materials such as computer chips, packaging materials, and alternative fuels. Increasing numbers of policy and ethical choices facing the global community involve issues where chemistry plays a pivotal role. This minor provides students with the opportunity to study chemistry in order to build a secondary area of expertise in support of their major or as an additional area of interest.